Pages

Thursday, December 3, 2015

So... if you have noticed a trend, all my recent posts have been baby showers as all my married friends are now having babies! Here is a sports themed baby shower I hosted in my backyard for some close friends of mine who are expecting a baby boy.

Since this shower was hosted in my backyard, decorations were spread throughout all the patio furniture. I found a great majority of the decoration supplies on Amazon. I loved these hanging sport ball lanterns that really tied the theme together.

I created this "It's a Boy" banner with print outs and construction paper.

In my backyard, we have this tented area which was great for hanging baby onesies. I also set up low picnic tables for seating.

For centerpiece decor, I used these tissue paper grass mats (each pack comes with TWO mats). Mason jars were filled with sunflower seeds and peanuts. I also spread out some baby themed items on the grass.

By utilizing the grill, our concessions stand served hamburgers and hot dogs with condiments as well as a build your own nachos station. Crock pots were great for serving hot nacho cheese and chilli. These plastic grass table cloths were a great addition to the sports theme.

No sports themed snack bar is complete without peanuts, popcorn, Cracker Jacks and pretzels, For dessert, I made sports ball themed chocolate dipped strawberries and set up an ice cream sundae bar.

I sewed felt cut outs and used iron on letters to create the custom pennant flags.

I can't wait for baby Josiah's arrival so I can have another baby to love on!

Thursday, May 14, 2015

My friends and soon-to-be parents, Pauline and Eugene are a few weeks away from welcoming a baby boy into their family. To celebrate this joyous occasion, we hosted a Twinkle Twinkle Little Star themed baby shower at their home.

Here are the details of the dessert table I created for baby Liam's pending arrival for under $100.

Table Decor

I love hanging baby clothes as part of the decor for a baby shower. The clothes are not only cute and easy to acquire, but also make great "decorations" to any space/table.

To go along with the star theme, I purchased these star mylar balloons from Party City and then used blue washi tape to spell out Liam's name.

We loved this little saying to tie the theme together. This print was a digital file I purchased for $5 on Etsy HERE

Desserts

Star Sugar Cookies
Usually, I would make these sugar cookies from scratch, but to save time I used a Groupon where I was able to get a dozen custom sugar cookies for $18.

Star Shaped Pie Pops
To create these pie pops, I followed THIS recipe, but used a star shaped cookie cutter to go along with the star theme. You will also need 2 boxes of pie crusts not 1 to make a dozen star pie pops.

Blueberry Cheesecake Shooters
This recipe is so easy to make and what is even better is that there is no baking involved! I also loved that I was able to make these the day before by freezing them. I used 2oz plastic shot glasses that I found at Party City (100 for $8). For the crust and filling, I used THIS recipe and was able to make about 2 dozen shooters. I topped each shooter with fresh blueberries. I also taped (blue washi tape) a mini spoon which I found at Daiso (50 for $1.50) along with each shooter.

Donut Hole Skewers
To make these star skewers, I cut out stars using a star punch and glitter scrapbook paper and then glued them to the ends of a wooden skewer. These donut holes were store bought.

Dirty Diaper Treats
To make these "diapers" I used blue paper napkins and THIS picture tutorial and sealed each one with a safety pin. I filled each diaper with chocolate covered pretzels and candies from Trader Joes.

I am so excited for these parents-to-be and I am even more excited to meet baby Liam!

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

When my friends Jina and Lo scheduled their baby shower for the first weekend in Spring, I thought it would be perfect to center the shower around Spring florals and pastels to celebrate their baby girl. I loved the femininity of this shower and the challenge of creating desserts around this theme.
What was best about this dessert table spread was that I spent less than $75 to create it!

Backdrop

I absolutely loved this tissue paper floral backdrop for the dessert table. What I loved even more was that it cost me less than $8 worth of tissue paper to complete this backdrop! To create these tissue paper flowers, I used THIS tutorial but changed the flower centers to circular petals.

Dessert Table

To keep the cost down for this dessert spread, I selected desserts which use ingredients that I already have in my pantry.

I love making rice krispie treats because they are so quick and easy to make. I used a flower cookie cutter, M and M's and paper straws to create these flower rice krispie treats.

I recently took a mini desserts baking class at Sweet and Saucy Shop and the mini key lime pies we made were delicious so I had to make them for this dessert spread.

I do not have the patience to bake or decorate a 3 layer cake, so I love utilizing Albertson's bakery department. This carrot cake was only $21. I found the "It's a Girl" cake topper on Etsy HERE and luckily the seller lived only a few minutes from me so I was able to avoid shipping charges!

To create the sugar cookies with the buttercream flowers, I baked round sugar cookies (recipe HERE) and piped buttercream (recipe HERE-just use regular vanilla extract) using a 2D piping tip.

These hydrangea cupcakes were a huge hit at the shower. Many people thought they were real flowers and didn't know it was edible! I used a box cake mix to make the chocolate cupcakes and then used THIS tutorial for the hydrangea frosting affect. To make the cupcakes look more floral, I placed each cupcake into 2" diameter clay pots which I found at Hobby Lobby (6 for $2!)

Decorations

Decorated the room with onesies pinned on a clothesline.

Gift Table

For the table centerpieces, I used pinwheels (found HERE) and stuffed green crinkle paper in white tin buckets I found at Ikea for $1.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

One of my very close childhood friends asked me to help host a big birthday celebration for her son's 2nd birthday. Due to extenuating circumstances, Jesse was unable to have a celebration for his 1st birthday so to make up for it, we wanted to throw a big celebration for his 2nd birthday to celebrate all that he and his parents have accomplished this past year.

Jesse is into all things that little boys love, especially trains. So it was very easy to come up with a theme for his birthday party.

Here are the highlights of what I created for his party which was held at a community clubhouse.

Decorations:

The colors for the party were mint green, teal and hints of purple. The decor for the party mainly consisted of balloons which were purchased from Party City.

For the table centerpieces, I used mini tin buckets that I found at Ikea for $1 each that were stuffed with silver tissue paper and the balloons.

To add the train theme to the centerpieces, I cut out these rail road and train signs that I found on Google images and taped them to the buckets.

Photos of Jesse were showcased using this photo train made from scrapbook paper. To save time, it helps to have a paper cutter and a circle punch.

This was definitely a kid friendly party, so we wanted the decorations to be very playful. I absolutely loved these standing railroad crossing signs (found here). They were definitely pricey, but it added to the theme so perfectly. Plus, we were able to use the yellow RxR sign that came along with it for the dessert table. To make the train tracks, we used two rolls of silver duct tape.

At every party I host, I make sure to always have a photo backdrop for people to take pictures and selfies. To create this backdrop, I used my easy $5 streamer backdrop tutorial HERE and created a train theme birthday banner using scrapbook paper.

Dessert Table
At all the parties I host, I also love to have a wide dessert spread that goes along with the theme.
I absolutely loved how this dessert table turned out.

Fortunately, we have a friend who has a printing company that was able to print out the backdrop poster. I also like to use fabric linens for dessert tables instead of using the plastic ones you find at Party City. Luckily, I was able to find this website where you can purchase linen table cloths for under $10 which is pretty much what I would have spent to rent table linens.

To decorate the dessert table, I used one of Jesse's train sets (from Ikea).

Being that this was a kids birthday party, we knew we had to have a lot of sweets especially cake.

To add to the dessert table, I made blue velvet (boxed mix) cake pops with the #2 sprinkled on over piped chocolate melts.

These chocolate covered lemon Oreos were made using this mold and chocolate melts (Merkens brand). I piped the RxR by hand using black chocolate melts and a piping bag.

To create these traffic light rice krispie treats, I purchased pre-made square rice krispie treats from the bakery department at Ralphs (a huge time saver and it was more cost effective) and cut the squares in half. Then I dipped the rectangles in melted black chocolate melts (Wilton brand) and pressed in red, yellow and green M & Ms. You can serve them as is or standing by pushing in lollipop sticks.

To make these train sugar cookies, I used a train cookie cutter, this cookie recipe and used this video tutorial for the royal icing.

Food:
Since we were expecting more than 80 people, the families decided to cater lunch from a Korean catering company. This was a big relief to not have to cook food for 80 people.

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Last month, I turned the big 3-0... wahhhhh. When planning for my 30th birthday, I knew I wanted to go all out, and because of that, my budget for the party was definitely a lot more than I would normally ever spend on a party. I have always wanted to host a roaring 20's party and my 30th birthday was the perfect occasion. Here is the breakdown of the details from the party:

Invitation:

I absolutely loved the invitation for my party as it set the theme perfectly for what was to come.
This layout design was purchased from Etsy.

Decorations:

The party was hosted at a clubhouse which was pretty bare, so I brought in a lot of decorations to bring in the 20's flare which meant a lot of feathers, fringe, glitter, gold and black.

The bar was decorated with a lot of fringe. You can find the gold fringe curtain here.

The same gold fringe curtain was used as the photo backdrop for the party. Since it was mandatory for everyone in attendance to dress up in the 20's Gatsby theme, this backdrop was definitely necessary to get some great photo ops.

For the centerpieces on the lounge tables, I knew I wanted something dramatic with height. I've seen these feather centerpieces at various events and thought they would be perfect for my party. I purchased the 24" tall Eiffel tower vase at a local event store for $6/ea. For the feathers, I scoured Ebay for weeks to get the best deal on bulk ostrich feathers. Luckily, I was able to get 100 of them for $50, which was a steal. Here is a video tutorial I used on creating these centerpieces (I did not include the lights).

There were also casino tables which took care of some of the decorating of the space. I think it is important to have some sort of activity to keep the party flowing and the poker, blackjack and roulette table definitely kept guests occupied.

Here is a view of the inside space

Food:

For the catering, I didn't want to drive myself crazy by doing it all myself so I used a caterer for some of the desserts as well as the tray passed appetizers.

I believe the cake is always the centerpiece of any party and my cake was definitely the center of attention. Rooney Girl Bake Shop, a local bakery, created my cake and I absolutely LOVED it!

It went perfectly with the theme and colors of the party AND it was delicious!

Some of the desserts I personally made for the party were chocolate covered Oreos with chocolate feather accents, tuxedo strawberries and cannoli bites (recipe here) which were all pretty inexpensive to make. The fruit tarts and pizzelle cookies were purchased from Whole Foods.

Since I hired a caterer to serve tray passed appetizers, I wanted to provide some additional displayed appetizers to keep people full throughout the party. I kept the displayed appetizers simple: a cheese and cracker plate (a must at all my parties), hummus and pita chips/bread, antipasto skewers (recipe here), a veggie plate as well as chips and spinach dip.

Below are a couple of the tray passed appetizers that were served by a local catering company:

Tomato and Goat Cheese Puff Pastry Tarts

BBQ Hawaiian Meatballs

Coconut Shrimp

As a surprise, I brought in a great magician, Jack Velour, to entertain my guests throughout the night. It was great entertainment and all my guests were fascinated with his tricks and sleight of hand.

Here are some additional photos from the night:

Saying goodbye to my 20's and turning 30 was pretty difficult realization, but I honestly have nothing to complain about. God has blessed me with SOOO much!